Frontline
by demogirl193
Summary: Aizen attacks earlier than expected and has complete control of the seireitei. The few remaining survivors need to find a way to regain control and defeat Aizen, but is that even possible now that he has the Kings Key? Previously titled Nemo. OC center
1. Camisado

Hello everybody! Just so you know, I** am **a new writer, this **is** my first story, and i plan to finish this no matter what happens in the manga. I keep a progress report of the story on my profile.

This story is centered on an original character named Kiyoko Fawa. Also, in the first chapter, there are many OC's, but believe me, that changes and as you read you will figure out how and why. As for what canon characters are in my story, i usually have Hisagi, Hitsugaya, or Matsumoto. They aren't always in every chapter together, but i'm trying to put at least one in each chapter.

**PLEASE REVIEW!** I want to improve my writing and i can't do that if someone doesn't tell me that i did something wrong, or that i didn't describe something very clearly. Also, if you only read a little way into the story and decide to leave, please tell me why because seeing a sudden decrease in numbers makes me fell bad. AND if Kiyoko turns Mary Sue on you, PLEASE TELL ME!! Mary Sue's annoy my and i don't want to become a hypocrite.

This chapter and the next are a little slow, but i promise, the pace really picks up...well i think it does. the plot starts in chapter 3, and after that things just go down hill for the shinigami.

**Disclaimer:** i do not own Bleach. (I usually forget to put this on, so this implies for the entire story)

* * *

Soul Society was calm, not the normal calm that it harbors on ordinary nights. There was something different that put it apart from others. With the exception of the shinigami who where patrolling the corridors, everyone was asleep. Not one soul was out drinking or walking the grounds or out on the roofs looking at the stars. 

Everything was calm.

The war with Aizen was a month away and it was already taking its toll on the shinigami. Just a few weeks ago Captain Yamamoto ordered that the squads train for the war and so they trained. Their schedule was full of days to prepare and only a few to relax. Many complained, but did it nonetheless just so they could be done with this confrontation and have the normal, quiet life they missed.

The deep blue color of the sky gradually began to lighten as the sun emerged from the ground. The once slumbering buildings were beginning to wake as the red light of morning shown through their eyes.

Ninth division began to buzz with people waking for the day. The dorm rooms were being emptied of their limping inhabitants; all except one.

One door remained closed.

The sun rose higher in the sky as those awake entered the cafeteria to have their morning meal. Hisagi Shuuhei finished quickly and stood to give role call.

"Third seat, Kiyoko Fawa," he announced.

No answer.

"Kiyoko Fawa,"

No answer.

He sighed, "Fourth seat, Yurie Anami."

"Here!" came a tired voice.

"Go see if Fawa has died in her sleep, and if not, bring her down here." He said calmly.

The young girl groaned as she rose from her seat and left the cafeteria. The halls were empty and every door looked the same as the last. She walked directly up to Kiyoko's room and pounded her fist on the door.

"Kiyoko," She shouted, but received no answer. She slid open the screen into the room, "Kiyoko,"

The walls were bare and a small desk sat in the corner. On the opposite side lay a futon with a young girl sprawled upon it, still in her shinigami uniform. A few dark pieces of hair were visible under the pillow she had over her head in a failed attempt to shut out the intruder.

"Kiyoko get up!" Yurie shouted.

The girl made no movement. Annoyed that she wasn't listening, Yurie pulled the futon away from the wall, raised it up, and flipped it over so that Kiyoko was trapped underneath. The futon shuffled as she emerged from under it.

"What the heck was that for?" Kiyoko glared at her friend, her long black hair still tied into a pony tail that reached half way down her back. For some reason whenever Yurie came around, she felt like a stray dog. Yurie had chest length bouncy black hair, big brown eyes, and a stunning smile. Not to mention Yurie remembered her old life in Rukongai, where as Kiyoko did not.

She couldn't remember anything; the last thing she remembered was waking up in the Forth division hospital with a minor wound on her torso. She asked her nurse what happened to her, but she wouldn't explain. While in the hospital everyone called her Kiyoko, so she adopted that name. After she healed Captain Unohana had her take a test to get into the shinigami academy where she was roommates with Yurie.

"You're late," Yurie said putting her hands on her hips. Kiyoko just looked at her confused, "For practice!" she finished.

"WHAT!" Kiyoko eyes widened. She had completely forgotten about practice.

"Yes, you're late! Hisagi is not happy..."

Kiyoko barely heard Yurie as she ran out the door, down to the cafeteria, and burst through the door. The cafeteria was almost empty; everyone was shuffling out, Hisagi at the end.

"So you decided to join us, Fawa." Hisagi said with a small smirk, "I'm sorry, because you slept in you missed breakfast."

Yurie turned away from the two and walked through the rows of the cafeteria looking for something.

"Fantastic, if I slept in later would I have missed practice?" Kiyoko replied sarcastically.

The smirk disappeared and Hisagi opened his mouth to reply, but Yurie interrupted him.

"Kumi didn't finish." She said, holding out a piece of bread. Thankful Kiyoko took it and the three of them followed the rest of the squad to the practice field.

During the practices the squad would break up into two groups; one for fighting and one for meditation. Every hour for six hours the groups would swap; the meditation group would fight and the fighting group would meditate.

When the three arrived people were already separating. Two people where preparing to fight with wooden swords, ten were settling down to start meditation with their zanpaku-tos, and the rest were finishing conversations with their friends.

Recognizing an extra hour of sleep, Kiyoko raced over to the meditation area and sat down with her sword in her lap. The last thing she heard was Hisagi address the fighting group before slipping into a quiet sleep. Unfortunately, her nap was cut short when someone reported that she was snoring and Hisagi rudely woke her by dragging her to her feet and forcing her join the fighting group. After fifteen minutes she began to grow bored.

"Having fun?" Hisagi said from behind her.

"No, I'm better then all of them." Kiyoko pointed to the group. "They're not hard enough for me."

"Fight Yurie, she's only a seat below you."

"She's meditating." Kiyoko retorted.

"Fight me."

Fight Hisagi. He may only be a seat above her, but she knew that ever since Tousen left, Hisagi had been training harder than ever. Though Kiyoko was well aware that Hisagi was stronger, she agreed.

Hisagi picked up a wooden sword as Kiyoko got into her stance, readying herself for him to attack. There was silence, people who were fighting stopped to see the fight. The sudden stillness was notice by the meditating group and many of them stopped to watch.

Hisagi ran towards Kiyoko with his weapon raised. Effortlessly, she blocked. They backed away and attacked again. Hisagi shun-poed behind her and struck her the ribs.

"If I was using a real sword you would be dead." He smirked.

Kiyoko's side throbbed painfully, but she wasn't going to surrender so easily. She turned, pulling her sword up to strike Hisagi. He blocked, the smirk wiped from his face as soon as his eyes fell on Kiyoko's serious expression.

From experience, he knew not to play or mock Kiyoko when fighting. They had battled each other many times, but he had never seen her zanpaku-tos shikai.

They backed off, Hisagi shun-poed in front of Kiyoko who blocked, and he began to push her back. She felt her feet skid across the ground, but her eyes never left Hisagi's. He followed through with his attack and knocked the weapon from her hands. The wooden sword flew through the air and landed on the ground several feet away, leaving Kiyoko defenseless. Hisagi's moves were certainly different from the last time they had battled one another; he was quicker, his hits were harder, and he was manipulating her moves against her.

"You're done." he raised his sword to her shoulder.

Kiyoko glared at him. She knew he was improving, but this was ridiculous. Most of the time when they trained Hisagi would win, but it would take quite some time.

He lowered his sword and sighed. He was open; his guard was down, the perfect moment to attack! She had no time to get her sword; kido was going to have to work.

"Path of destruction four, Byakurai!" White lightning exploded out her finger towards Hisagi. He dogged at the last second and shot Kiyoko a confused look. "You dropped your guard." She responded.

"How foolish of me," he said before flash stepping behind Kiyoko, "Binding spell 33, Sokastui!" A ball of energy formed in his palm and rotated. Kiyoko didn't have time to move before it blasted at her. Taking the full impact of the kido, she was knocked back, landing hard on her side and rolled. Pain shot through her body, every limb felt burned.

Hisagi dropped his sword and walked up to her. "You done?"

"I'm done." she managed to say while she crawled to her knees. Her ribs ached as she tried to stand, but collapsed back to her knees.

"You're in no condition to say for the rest of the practice. Yurie," He turned and motioned for Yurie to come over, "will help you to Forth division and then will come back for the remainder of the session. You," he turned back to Kiyoko, "will say at Forth division until you are healed."

Kiyoko and Yurie nodded their heads to show they understood. Yurie hoisted Kiyoko to her feet and placed an arm around her waist to keep her supported.

"You were very impressive. I don't think I would have lasted as long if I were fighting Hisagi." Yurie tried to comfort her.

Kiyoko only groaned. She was embarrassed about what happened and really didn't want to talk about it. She hated showing weakness, and right now she was weak. She had to rely on Yurie to keep her standing; she couldn't even walk on her own. In her eyes, she was weak.

Yurie thought differently. To her, Kiyoko was tough; she fought Hisagi knowing that she probably wouldn't win. She took so many hard hits and yet kept fighting until she couldn't. Most people in the squad would have given up when Hisagi hit them in the side, but Kiyoko didn't. She rightfully deserved her spot as third seat. Yurie had to admit, she was proud of Kiyoko. So many things have happened to her, Yurie knew most of what happened the night that Kiyoko lost her memory, Hisagi had confessed everything to Yurie.

* * *

"_You know what happened to Kiyoko!" Yurie shouted_

_Hisagi sat across from her in the Ninth division study, sipping on sake. "Yeah, I was there that night. I remember it like hiccup like it was yesterday." He took another gulp of sake before going on. "__You see, hiccup young girls would go missing and then be found dead a few days later." Another chug of sake, "We were getting reports about this and it troubled a few of the captains, so Captain Y__amamoto sent Captain Unohana and me to take care of it. We talked to people in the area that the girls were being found," more sake, "And it led us to this fallen noble.hiccup When we arrived at the house, half of it was on fire, and yawn and, and…" Hisagi tilted his head so that he spoke his last few words to the ceiling. "And when we entered the house we found Kiyoko with a sword and the fallen noble dead on the ground."_

_Yurie was numb, she couldn't believe it. Kiyoko was the last victim to a crazed fallen noble. Yurie didn't even want to imagine what kind of hell she went through._

"_Kiyoko doesn't remember this?" Yurie wondered aloud._

"_No, and she never will. Unohana blocked her memory. There's no way she can remember on her own." _

_Yurie still had questions, questions that no one could answer. What happened? Where is Kiyoko really from? Who is she?_

* * *

"Oh my, what happened?" 

Yurie was ripped away from her thoughts and became suddenly aware that she was in fourth division, the white, empty buildings shining down at her and the sound of footsteps running towards her. There was weight on her shoulder, Kiyoko was leaning on Yurie much more than when they had first started out and until now, she was blissfully unaware of how tiered she was.

There was a curly haired nurse running towards them, her white dress was bloody and her hat threatening to fall off.

"Practice got a little rough." Yurie explained.

"Oh, well I'll take it from here." The nurse smiled. She pulled Kiyoko's arm over her shoulder and Yurie let go, passing Kiyoko over.

"Got her?" Yurie asked the nurse who nodded. "Good. Well, then I guess I'll go back to practice." Yurie looked at Kiyoko, hoping that she would give her a reason to stay, but Kiyoko was looking at the ground as if she were ashamed. Recognizing that she was no longer needed, Yurie left.

The nurse guided Kiyoko slowly into the hospital. The rooms were full of people, most of them from eleventh division and the nurses were busy running to get supplies. Kiyoko was put in an empty room with two beds and set down in the one farthest from the door. She and the nurse took her robe off and put on a hospital gown. Kiyoko felt strange. She hated coming here. All the hospital rooms looked the same; the cheep curtains, the rough sheets, and the bare, white walls. Every time she came here she would feel like she was reliving the time she woke up and couldn't remember who she was.

"What's your name?" Kiyoko asked.

"Rikku, what's yours?"

"Kiyoko," she wasn't very good at small talk.

Time passed in silence and soon the halls began to quiet down. Kiyoko was beginning to feel better when she heard a voice float through the stillness.

"Tira, are there any empty beds?"

"Yes, there's one around the corner."

Two people came through the door into the room Kiyoko and Rikku where in. It was another nurse carrying Rangiku, who what covering her eye with her hand.

The nurse looked at them and nodded a hello and led Rangiku up to the empty bed. "Now let me see your eye." she took a hold of the blonds hand and gingerly pried it away from her face. Rangiku's eye was covered in blood and the skin around it was bruised. "Dear me, what happened?"

"I was showing one of the newbies' how to do a certain move when Captain suddenly asked me a question. Well, the newbie didn't notice and he hit me." She said plainly.

The nurse smirked at the end of her story. "You want to lie down for me Rangiku."

"KIYO! KIYOKO!!" Yurie's voice could be heard from somewhere in hall. "KIYOKO!"

"I'm in here, Yurie!" Kiyoko shouted. It wasn't long before she ran through the door into the room and directly up to Kiyoko.

"Hisagi let me out early. How are you feeling?"

"Fine, Rikku's doing a wonderful job."

"Good!" Yurie turned Rikku, "Thank you."

Behind Yurie, Kiyoko could see Rangiku pushing her nurse away.

"Rangiku, I know it hurts, but if you don't want to lose your sight, I have to touch it!"

Yurie looked around. Rangiku and Yurie were acquaintances; they usually get together for drinking parties and to sneak off to the real world. Kiyoko wasn't much of a drinker or a real world person, so she and Rangiku usually don't see each other.

Yurie went up to Rangiku, "Wow. What happened to you?"

"A newbie hit me."

"A newbie hit you!" Yurie giggled.

"SHUT UP, HE'D HAVE HIT YOU TOO!"

"I'm done Ran." The nurse confirmed. "You should be fine, and if not come back in the morning." Rangiku thanked her nurse, who was on her way out.

Rangiku got up off her bed and stood next to Yurie. "What are you doing tomorrow?" Tomorrow was the one of their days off from practice.

"Kiyoko and I are going to Health Land."

Rikku motioned to Kiyoko that she needed her to sit up so she could heal her back. While Kiyoko struggled to sit up she heard Rangiku ask to come along.

Yurie turned her gaze to the ceiling in her fake pondering act. She shifted her weight so that she looked from Kiyoko, to Rangiku, back to Kiyoko.

"I suppose you could come…mmmmhhmmm" the rest of Yurie's sentence was muted due to Rangiku pulling her into a hug. Yurie's bouncy hair was the only part of her head visible between Rangiku's cleavage.

"Thank you!" Rangiku gleefully squealed.

"HR MUMHUM, MW HM MM." Yurie hummed.

"What time are you leaving?"

"HMH HH MMHHM HHMM HM M."

"Ran, please release Yurie." Kiyoko pleaded. Rangiku unwillingly released a very flush Yurie.

"We're leaving at nine in the morning." Yurie gasped as she fixed her messy hair.

"Great! It's getting dark, see you tomorrow." Rangiku waved, and skipped out of the room, bouncing as she went. Yurie stood staring at the place Rangiku had been standing. Kiyoko glanced out of the window, Rangiku was right. The sun was sinking, casting a golden-red blaze over the colorless buildings.

Rikku quickly finished and soon the two friends were on the way back to their district.

"That was fun!" Yurie said happily.

Kiyoko brushed her long hair out of her face. "Not really."

"You don't mind that I invited Matsumoto do you?"

"No, I don't mind." Kiyoko whispered. Yurie looked unconvinced. "Really, I don't mind! Who knows, she and I could be good friends."

"Well, the two of you haven't really spent time with each other. So, maybe you'll get along."

"Stop worrying, it'll be fine."

"I know, I know, but it was just going to be you and me and now I have this idea that you're disappointed." She confessed.

"I'm not…okay, maybe a little, but we might as well make the best of it." Kiyoko put her arm around Yurie's shoulder "Don't worry about it, we'll get along."

"I suppose your right,"

"I am right, so calm down."

When the two girls arrived back at their division they headed off to their rooms for another night. Kiyoko was ready to go to bed, her body groaned with every movement. When she entered her room she realized that she wasn't going to be able to just fall on her bed and sleep. Her futon was still upside down, and the sheets were knotted together. With a sigh she flipped her futon back, threw her pillow on top and tossed the sheets back in place. Relieved, she fell onto her bed and pulled the sheets over her tired body. Within minutes she was asleep.


	2. Camisado part II

You have now, officially, made it to the second half of my first chapter ( i would have made it one chapter, but it started to get really long). this chapter is much shorter (like one half shorter) so it'll be over quickly. Then my plot starts! YEAH! i'm excited, and i hope you like it.

**Camisado **by Panic! at the Disco

* * *

_The halls were narrow, and lit only by the flames that licked the walls, but she wasn't afraid of them. She was afraid of something else. She had difficulty running. Her hands were bound together and there was a painful sting on right her cheek. She was afraid, but afraid of what, she did not know. Other than the flames and unknown fear, the halls were empty. There were no other people, just her. She was getting tired, and couldn't breathe in the thick smoke. Something heavy hit her in the back forcing her to the ground. She felt something pin her to the floor and it wouldn't let her go. She needed to get away, she had to get away, but couldn't. Her fear of this thing was empowering her will to escape, the fear of death filling her. What ever this thing was, she knew it meant to kill her._

_The thing spoke, but she couldn't hear it. Whatever it said it frightened her and she fought even harder to be freed. She writhed and kicked, doing any thing her free limbs could to escape. She hit something and the feared thing yelled and rolled off. Without hesitation she got to her feet and began running again._

"Kiyoko!"

_Who? Kiyoko? That wasn't her name, she was…_

"KIYOKO!"

Slowly she became slightly conscious; she was numb, cold, and her heart was pounding. "Kiyoko," A familiar voice rang through her confusion, bringing her back to complete awareness. Her eyes opened to meet the gentle brown eyes of Yurie.

Yurie was on her knees beside Kiyoko, and her bath robe was on the floor next to her. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine," Kiyoko lied.

"That's odd, because you look flushed."

"So, it was an exciting dream." She retorted. Kiyoko propped herself up on her elbows, and yawned, "Why did you wake me up?"

"We need to get going!" It was early and at least an hour before they were planning on leaving. "Come on, get up!" Eagerly, Yurie grabbed Kiyoko's arm and yanked her to her feet.

"I'm up, I'm up!" Kiyoko snapped. She wasn't the kind of person to get up early for anything, usually she prefers to sleep in and be late than wake up early. She sulked over to her closet and pulled out her bath robe. It wasn't anything special, it was all white and in desperate need of replacing. It was frayed and had a few stains on it, but it still served its purpose.

Yurie had collected her things and was standing by the door. "Let's go!"

"Morning person." she mocked Yurie, "Just relax, breathe. We'll get there in time."

"Lethargic," Yurie returned, "The sooner we get there the better. NOW GET MOVING!" Yurie motioned towards the door as Kiyoko quickly brushed her long hair.

"I'm coming." Kiyoko crossed the room and left with Yurie. The walk to Health Land was quiet; at first the tension that Kiyoko was letting out made it hard to talk to her, but as they got closer her mood lightened. When they finally reached the spa, Yurie went up to the registration area to get them in. The person who was managing the desk was a girl with her brown hair tied back.

"We are also expecting one more, she'll be coming a little later."

"So there are going to be three of you?"

"Yes, her name is Rangiku Matsumoto."

The girl jotted down the information, then motioned for them to follow her. She led them into a large room with a giant, round shaped bath in the corner. It was already prepared with hot water and jasmine smelling soap. The towels and wash cloths were stacked neatly beside the pool. Next to them were some shampoos, conditioners, and a bucket to rinse their hair out with. On the opposite end was a resting area with chairs and a small table. Kiyoko and Yurie bowed simultaneously in thanks. The girl gave a node in acceptance and left to get back to her post.

"YEAH!" Kiyoko got out of her shinigami robes, took the bandages off her arms, and went into the tub. Yurie soon followed.

"Ah, the water is nice." Yurie commented.

"Mm," Kiyoko hummed in agreement. The two fell quiet as they enjoyed the calm water.

"I'm here!" the high pitched voice of Rangiku broke the peaceful silence.

Yurie smiled, "Hi Ran, how was your night?"

"Wonderful, I had so much sake that I can't remember what happened." She replied while she undressed.

Kiyoko frowned. How was that wonderful? Not remembering anything is a curse. She would do anything to remember, yet Rangiku was trying to forget. None of this made sense, forgetting things is not wonderful, it is not to be wanted. How could Rangiku possibly want what Kiyoko has; no memory, no recollection of what happened. How is she able to throw away every memory, while Kiyoko cherishes them?

Kiyoko turned away from Yurie to face Rangiku. "What's so fun about forgetting what happens?" she finally asked.

"It's not forgetting that's fun, it's the finding out what you did that is." Rangiku replied.

"I don't get it."

"You see; if you did something like dance naked on a table while being intoxicated and you don't remember it. Then like a week later you remember it!" Rangiku said happily as if she was reliving an event like this.

Kiyoko felt a flicker of hope; there could be a chance that she'll remember. "So you just remember what happens."

"Usually," she looked up, "Yurie what are you shaking your head at?"

Kiyoko swung around to her. She was looking at the water as if nothing happened. Kiyoko was puzzled at first, but quickly caught on. Yurie hadn't told Rangiku about Kiyoko's past, she didn't know Kiyoko's true intention for asking the questions.

Yurie suddenly spoke, "How's the thing going?" Rangiku's confused expression told Yurie to emphasize a little further. "You know the thing about setting your captain up with the cute girl from third division."

"Oh that! It's, um, not going too well. She is about his height and is cold like him, but he insists that he doesn't have the time for a girlfriend. But I say that if he has time to worry about paper work, then he has time for a girlfriend."

"Maybe you can persuade him to just go on a date with her." Yurie suggested.

Rangiku climbed into the pool, "Perhaps, but how?"

"You said that he is obsessed with his paper work, you could finish it for him." Kiyoko offered.

Yurie and Rangiku looked at each other out of the corners of their eyes. At first they just smiled, but soon it erupted into laughter.

Yurie managed to collect her self quickly, "Good try Kiyoko, but I don't think that's going to work."

Rangiku finally calmed down and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Oh Honey, I don't even do my own paper work, why would I do his?"

Giving up on her futile efforts to understand this woman, Kiyoko turned her attention to taking care of her hair. She chose some vanilla smelling shampoo and ran it through with her fingers. The lovely fragrance caught Rangiku's attention.

"Mmm, I used something that smelled just like that in the real world." She closed her eyes as if she was reliving memories.

"How was the real world? Has anything changed?" Yurie inquired.

"A lot has changed."

The three washed themselves and talked about the real world and Rangiku's time there. When they were finished cleaning they put on their robes and moved to the seating area. They sat in a circle around the small table. Yurie sat next to Kiyoko and Rangiku sat across from them. On the table was a kettle with hot water, a dozen mugs, and a red case of tea bags. Kiyoko took the trouble of filling three cups for them, but they had to pick their tea. Silently, she listened to the conversation.

"You fought an Arrencar, are they hard?"

Rangiku sipped her tea, "Yes, if captain wasn't around, I probably wouldn't be either. He saved all of our asses.

"So, if you couldn't defeat one, how are we going to?" Yurie motioned towards her and Kiyoko.

"They aren't all hard, some are really easy. The first one I fought was easy after the limit was lifted."

A sting of fear entered Kiyoko heart; she wasn't close to getting bankai, heck, she barely managed to obtain shikai. Yet she was expected to fight against enemies that could effortlessly kill her, but she knew she couldn't run from it. Many years ago she vowed to fight for the shinigami, and, even now, she never regretted it. Even so, she didn't want to leave those who she loves, or loose them in a fight that could have been prevented. All she truly ever wanted was to have a peaceful life, but fighting was now a part of her life, and loosing it would make her feel incomplete.

Breaking her silence, Kiyoko finally spoke, "When, exactly, are we expecting to fight?"

"Some time this winter." Yurie answered.

"That is, if the Captains in Hueco Mundo don't succeed in finishing him first." Rangiku corrected.

"This confuses me;" Kiyoko wondered aloud, "If Aizen has an army that could defeat us now, why doesn't he just get it over with and attack now."

Rangiku ran her fingers through her hair. "I've wondered that too, and, honestly, I cannot say for sure why he is waiting."

Yurie put her head in her hands, "Can we get off this subject; it's making me nervous."

"Sorry," Kiyoko apologized as she picked up her tea. Kindly she changed the subject, saying the first thing that came to her mind "So, Rangiku how did you meet Hisagi?"

"It's a funny story, I had been a shinigami for quite some time and some of us were going to welcome the new comers. We were planning to…" Rangiku stopped, and hastily looked around. She got up and went to the window. She pushed the curtains back and closely examined the outside world.

"What?" Yurie and Kiyoko said at the same time.

"Something isn't right, I can feel it."

The two got up and followed her, they felt it too. It was strange; it was some sort of reiatsu that closely resembled that of Hollows, but it was different. Kiyoko and Yurie exchanged glances: what is this? Their momentary connection was interrupted by a violent shaking in the ground that knocked them all to the ground. Kiyoko managed to land on her knees and prop herself up with her hands, while the other two landed full force on the floor. The vibrations lasted for a few moments, but soon stopped, the girls looked around bewildered of the current situation.

"What happed?" Kiyoko gasped.

"It felt like the seki-seki wall went down." Rangiku replied.

Yurie anxiously glanced at the others, "But," she began.

_Dong, Dong, Dong,_ the warning bell echoed through the room. There were invaders in the Seireitei, and they were threatening to attack. Kiyoko was confused; they were just talking about Aizen, but could he really be here. Did he think like they did, and decide to attack now that he has the strength? Or was it just something that didn't need to be worried about? Either way she needed to report back to her post in her district, as did the other two.

* * *

Alright, one of my proofreaders said that this was a really big cliffhanger, but if you think that this is a cliffhanger, you are going to be really shocked later on when the real cliffhangers appear. 

AH! the plot is coming!!!

I've writen four of the chapters already, but i don't want to feel rushed in finishing (cause i'll make many mistakes and things won't make sense) so i'll try to update every three-four days. OH, this is my first ever fanfic, so this is kind of a big deal for me. So be kind, Comment, and tell me what you think (suggestions are welcome, i think that critiques help me be better).


	3. The Ghost of You

The Ghost of you by My Chemical Romance

PS my proofreaders are gone for the holiday, so everyone brace yourselfs, i make a lot of mistakes.

* * *

_Dong, Dong, Dong,_ the warning bell echoed through the room. There were invaders in the Seireitei, and they were threatening to attack. Kiyoko was confused; they were just talking about Aizen, but could he really be here. Did he think like they did, and decide to attack now that he has the strength? Or was it just something that didn't need to be worried about? Either way she needed to report back to her post in her district, as did the other two. 

The girls got to their feet and quickly changed into their uniforms. Without a word being said, they left to report to their districts and prepare for whatever was on the other side of the wall. Kiyoko ran as fast as she could with Yurie at her heals, when they arrived, every one else from their squad was already there and ready for battle.

The two friends hurried to their station, "Do you…," Yurie began, "Do you think it's Aizen?"

Kiyoko's heart sank; if it was him than there was a battle to be fought, but if it wasn't, then war would break out later. Either way there was a fight in their futures. "I don't know, Yurie, but I hope not."

"Don't get your hopes up." Hisagi was standing at his post not far from them. He came over to the girls, looking distraught and solemn. He knew what was coming, and it wasn't some thing that could be solved peacefully.

Kiyoko understood, "It's him, isn't it."

Hisagi gazed at the ground, "Yes."

Kiyoko knew that the Seireitei wasn't ready for a battle; they weren't strong enough to defeat this army. And Aizen must know that too, and that is why he is here.

"Damn," Yurie swore.

Once these words left her lips there was a loud boom and the ground shuddered, then a second boom and shudder. The people around them were confused and searching for where this sound was coming from. Kiyoko and Hisagi stared at the seki-seki wall; to them it sounded like the noises were coming from something hitting the other side of the wall. There was another boom and the wall cracked. Hisagi's eyes widened, quickly he hurried forward and began shouting orders.

Things suddenly moved in slow motion, Kiyoko could feel every beat of her heart, cherishing it as if it were her last. The banging continued and the crack widened, the shinigami were rushing forward to defeat whatever was going to come through. Kiyoko noticed Yurie pulling her sleeve trying to get her attention.

"Kiyoko, we have to move!" Yurie pulled her towards the wall. Barely aware of what was happening, Kiyoko unsheathed her sword. The enemy was doing well in their process of destroying the wall; pieces were falling from it making the crack bigger.

Yurie glanced over at Kiyoko, catching her attention. Kiyoko's eyes were filled with fear and sorrow as were Yurie's. Both of them knew that is may very well be their end; one or both may perish in this fight. There was no turning back from this; running would be pointless, and hiding would be futile. Fighting was their only option.

The wall exploded ripping the two friends' connection. They turned in time to see the pieces of the wall shatter and debris fill the air. Through the smoke Kiyoko could see the outline of the hole and the battering ram that made it. Figures were climbing through the gap surprising the fighters in the frontline and swiftly moving to their next opponent. Consequently, some of the next opponents were Kiyoko and Yurie.

Kiyoko couldn't decipher the details of her opponent's appearance; they had a mask over the left side of their face that had a horizontal dark line under the eye, and soft features that determined it was a female. Dark hair came down to her shoulders and she wore a white dress cut off at the knees.

The smoke was beginning clear allowing Kiyoko to see everything that was going on. She saw Yurie was battling another arrancar only a few feet away. And her own arrancar had her sword drawn and ready to attack. Kiyoko went into defense with her zanpaku-to in front like a shield. Her challenger was walking towards her, then, suddenly ran into an attack. Kiyoko's reflexes took over while she blocked the hit, her heart pounding hard in her chest as her adrenalin rose. She managed to push the arrancar back and attacked from a different angle. Her opponent shun-poed behind her, Kiyoko turned around and successfully blocked the surprise attack. The arrancar certainly wasn't impressed with Kiyoko's level of skill, for she scowled at her with a new desire to kill.

Kiyoko's only hope right now was to get out of this alive. Currently, the only reason she was alive was because of luck. Her opponent was quick and powerful, but if Kiyoko played right she might be able to win.

Now filled with anger, the arrancar attacked harder than before, surprising Kiyoko. Her grip tightened, making her a little less stable; she jumped back from the arrancar, allowing herself a space to gather momentum before she attacked. It was Kiyoko's turn to assail, but when the blades clashed she lost her grip on the hilt. Her sword flew through the air and landed with a soft thud. Kiyoko was defenseless. She stood stunned for a second before returning back to her senses. Now was not a time to stop and perceive things, she needed to constantly be thinking about this fight.

The arrancar took a quick swing at her, and she dodged. She needed to get her zanpaku-to back, but how? The arrancar moved so that she stood on the blade making her only way of retrieval to be to, somehow, sneak around her and shove her off.

Suddenly, inspiration entered her mind; there was no way that Kiyoko could defeat this enemy with only kido, but she could use it as a distraction.

"Binding Spell Number 25!"

A quick light shot out of Kiyoko's hand and hit the arrancar in the chest, sending her a slight way back. But a few steps back was all she needed. The arrancar stumbled off of the blade, and Kiyoko took the opportunity. She dashed forward to her sword, but didn't reach it in time. The arrancar recovered her balance faster than she had calculated, and met her at the sword with her blade raised. Kiyoko tried to retreat, but the blade still came down, cutting into her left shoulder.

Pain erupted from the wound causing Kiyoko to cringe. "Damn."

The wound was deep, but not quite deep enough to amputate her arm. She scrambled back, away from her opponent. Clenching her shoulder, Kiyoko tried to quickly conjure a plan. She was losing, so how could she bounce back and win? She didn't have a sword, her only weapon was kido, but she wasn't strong enough to cast a powerful spell without saying the chant, and she didn't have time to chant. She began to feel lightheaded; she was losing a lot of blood. She no longer possessed the energy to play around and try to get her zanpaku-to, she needed this to be over.

Kiyoko summoned all her remaining strength and prepared herself to cast the highest level kido spell she could without saying the chant. She lifted her arms straight over her head and crossed her hands together,

"Binding Spell Number 41!"

When the words left her mouth, she brought her hands down so that the spell hit the arrancar. Her aim was impeccable; Kiyoko's spell hit the arrancar in the center of her mask. The white mask split and the arrancar fell to her knees, clenching her face. She wasn't killed, but she was distracted long enough for Kiyoko to reach her sword. Once the sword was in her hands she turned back to her opponent, who was still on the ground holding her face. Without waiting for her to get to her feet, Kiyoko raced over and finished the fight.

Her first battle was over, relieved, she looked up. Yurie was still fighting her opponent. Her challenger was a male with a mask that went across his eyes, much like a phantom mask. He was quick in his attacks and Yurie was showing signs of being tired, but he hadn't even drawn his weapon.

He attacked, she blocked, then he shun-poed behind her and finally unsheathed his sword. His zanpaku-to glittered in the sun as it came down upon Yurie's back, nearly slicing her in half. She looked shocked as she fell to the ground and was motionless.

Kiyoko's blood went cold.

Yurie was…she… SHE WASN'T DEAD!

She couldn't be, but she wasn't moving. She wasn't even flinching.

THAT DAMN ARRANCAR MURDURD YURIE!

Anger boiled within Kiyoko, _that bastard killed Yurie!_ Kiyoko clenched her sword and ran forward to avenge her fallen friend. Ignoring the pain in her shoulder, she went immediately into an attack. The arrancar merely held up his arm to block and looked deep into Kiyoko's eyes with his piercing red ones.

"Pathetic, you saw me destroy your friend, and now you want revenge. Pathetic." He spoke in a monotone voice that could only be described as cold. His words stung, but were not enough to discourage her will to slaughter him.

She reeled her sword back and attacked again. The arrrancar looked bored as he blocked another attack. With his free arm he began to gather energy in his palm. The energy solidified and he forced it into Kiyoko's stomach. It felt like her abdomen had been punched by a boulder and she was sent flying back. The soar through the air seemed to take forever, but when she finally hit the ground, she landed on her back. The impacted knocked the air out of her lungs causing her to pant and cough blood as she tried to get to her feet.

"Interesting, most die after I hit them with my cero." He walked over to her, his eyes never left hers. Kiyoko tried to mentally tell him that she wasn't going to give up until she was dead. "Determined aren't you, but face it, you are injured and I am not. You've already lost."

Cocky ass hole!

This guy was mocking her, telling her she was the underdog and should give up.

IMPOSSIBLE!

She wasn't going to give in that easily.

Kiyoko wiped the blood and dirt from her lip, she _was fine_. She stared her opponent; however, it was hard to concentrate on him. Her vision was blurring. She became aware of how lightheaded, breathless, and weak she truly was. She couldn't win, but she had to, there was no other way. She only had enough energy to attack or block once, but how on earth could she win in one hit?

Kiyoko suddenly noticed that the arrancar was standing close to Yurie. Seeing Yurie lie there gave her a transitory burst of power. Using the power before it ran out, Kiyoko ran forward to attack.

The arrancar was expecting her to try and kill him. He flash stepped out of her way and reappeared behind her with his zanpaku-to unsheathed. Kiyoko was too slow to react before the sword came down, slicing through her back. The amount of pain was unbearable; she let out a scream and fell to her knees. Her dwindling energy seemed to be seeping out through her new wound. Her legs and arms grew tired and collapsed under her weight.

Kiyoko landed on the ground, defeated.

The two friends were lying a few feet apart, facing each other. Tears fell from Yurie's dulling brown eyes, she was crying.

She was alive!

Kiyoko's heart leapt, Yurie was alive, and she could still be saved! She tried to get to her feet, but her body wouldn't move; she was powerless. She couldn't save her friend anymore; she missed her chance by fighting the arrancar. She went into the battle in order to avenge Yurie, but instead she signed Yurie's death. Her worst fears where coming true; she was losing the only family she had.

Tears filled Kiyoko's eyes. She remembered how it felt when she lost her memory; she didn't want to lose something important to her again, but she was.

She was losing Yurie.

She silently wished that Yurie would live and that she would die. She hadn't done anything worth living, but Yurie did. She had family in Rukongai, family that would morn deeply if she died. Kiyoko wouldn't even be missed by anyone other than Yurie. She had nothing- she had no other family that would miss her.

Yurie's chest rose and fell as she breathed. She opened her mouth as if she was about to say something, but nothing came. Her chest stopped moving and her eyes were lifeless. Fear over came Kiyoko. Yurie wasn't moving, does that mean that she's… Her tears spilled from her eyes, her family was gone, her lifelong friend, dead. Yurie was never going to come back and reassure her that she was never going to leave.

Darkness crept in on Kiyoko's vision; it was getting harder and harder to see. Her eyelids gradually got heavy, and her body ached. She felt the tears fall down her face before she lost consciousness.

* * *

Well everyone I didn't say anything in the beginning because I'm going to talk a lot here. This story came to me from something my best friend once said. We were in my sisters car about to leave a party (but of course, my sister was still talking to someone, so my friend and I were alone) and she told me that she had a dream that I died. I didn't know what to say to her because this really caught me off guard. I laughed at first thinking that she was joking and was going to tell me that it was from something funny, but when she looked at me like I wasn't taking this as seriously as I should, I stopped and felt stupid. I quickly changed from awkwardly amused to dead serious (no pun intended) and told her that I wasn't going anywhere. 

The rest of the night, her words haunted me. When I finally went to bed, I dreamed that she was being killed and I couldn't do anything. If any of you have had that dream, you know how bad it feels to lose your best friend and not be able to stop it (and you guys thought the arriving at school naked dreams were bad). Even though it was a dream, you seem to be able to call back all of the details of what happened. Now (six months later), I am still able to remember everything.

This chapter was especially hard to write, because this is where the emotions came from. Though, I don't think I did them justice, I hope you guys are able to put in the really hard to explain emotions.


	4. Before the Dawn

HELLO! School started today. (groan) I haven't woken up this early since school let out. LUCKLY, I don't have to go tomorrow, I have doctor appointments and they don't start until one! (My first three hours are study hall, art, and gym, so I'm not missing much.) I got my laptop back today YEAH! Well I told you all that I'm going to update every three-four days, here is what I promised (even though my proof readers haven't read it yet)!

Before the Dawn by Evanescence

* * *

It was dark and a strange, disgusting smell permeated in the air. She was sleeping, but awake all at once. She was in a dreamlike awareness of herself. She was laying on something hard and something warm covered her body. When she breathed, something constricted her lungs. Her eyelids were heavy when she tried to lift them. 

She lay there trying to be aware of everything.

There was someone talking in the distance, their voice was unfamiliar, "Did you find any more survivors?"

Survivors, she wasn't dead? So why did she feel so empty inside?

Images of what happened flashed through her mind.

She was fending off a female with a mask, then, defeated her.

She was fighting a phantom arrancar, one of whom she was angry at.

She saw Yurie crying.

YURIE!

If she was alive, so was Yurie.

Kiyoko immediately opened her eyes, her heart pounding, her drerieness gone. Where was Yurie? She needed to find her. Kiyoko realized that she was laying on the floor of one of the halls in the sewer system with a blanket over her. The thing that was wrapped around her ribs was a bandage, and she had another around her shoulder. She tried to sit up, but pain caused her to fall back down with a grunt.

"OW!" she screamed, "Damn it!"

"What was that?" someone in the hall said. Kiyoko could hear them coming towards her. It didn't take long for them to come into view.

It was a short, skinny boy with black, neck length hair, and a bag that strapped across his chest. By the looks of him, he wasn't from any fighting division; he could possibly be from fourth.

"Your finally awake!" his voice was high pitched, "You had some really bad wounds; I'm actually surprised you lived." He came over and helped her sit up. She felt like she had pins in her ribs, they were, obviously, still mending. She realized her top was wide open. Thankfully, her chest was bandaged along with her abdomen.

"Where's Yurie?" she gasped.

"Yurie?"

The confused look on his face told Kiyoko that he had no idea who she was taking about. Did that mean...

"Hanataro, what's taking you?" A tall girl with chin length black hair walked forward. She wore an orange choker that bloomed out to her shoulders and colored feathers around her right eye. "Oh, she's awake! Bring her down the hall," her voice was oddly low for a girl, "we're planning our strategy." she told Kiyoko. After she was finished, she turned and walked away.

"Do you think you can walk?" Hanataro asked.

"I think I can manage it." She was aware that it would be hard and painful, but if it they were making a war strategy, she should get in on it.

And maybe Yurie would be there.

Hanataro helped to her feet. She stood, but she was wobbly and needed to hang on to something. He helped her tie her uniform shut, and then pulled her arm over his shoulder and together they walked down to where everyone was. There weren't many people, there was maybe, twenty-five at the most.

They were going to plan a war strategy for twenty-five people? And none of those people were captains or lieutenants. Somehow, this seemed impossible.

Kiyoko sat down by a man whose arm was in a sling and had a bandage over his eye. The rest of the people were in better condition; only a few were perfectly fine, but most had wraps around some wound. Two people stood out the most; one was a tall, dark, brawny looking man who was wearing human clothes. The other was a slender, tall guy with odd white clothes and black hair that fell in two slivers beside his face. Between the two sat a small girl shinigami with black hair that curled out at the ends, and a stubborn bang that dangled down the middle of her face.

The tall girl with the orange choker stood in the middle of the group, "Now that we are all here," she began. "Let's get continue."

Kiyoko looked around, searching for Yurie. If this was everybody, she would surely be here, but she wasn't.

"The defeat this morning has greatly decreased our army," She continued.

This shocked her, "The fight was just this morning." Kiyoko whispered.

The guy next to her glared in her direction, "Yes, that's what he just said." he snapped.

"That's a guy?"

"YES! That is Yumichika Ayasegawa, fifth seat in eleventh division. Now shut up!"

Kiyoko shut her mouth and turned her attention back to Yamichika.

"But we should not be discouraged; we can release the captains and lieutenants. If we do this we will have a chance of defeating Aizen."

"Release them? What do you mean?" Kiyoko spoke up.

The guy next to her groaned, "We already talked about this."

"YEAH! Well I just woke up." She retorted.

Yamichika raised his hand to stop them from fighting and then explained, "When we were searching for survivors, we noticed people that had a certain amount of reiatsu weren't around. They weren't dead, nor could we sense them anywhere. We guessed that they were being held prisoner with their reiatsu sealed. And, in order to confirm this we, sent someone up to check and we were right. All of them are being held in the districts that they were in when they fought. following?" Kiyoko nodded. "What we want to do is go up and free them."

"How?"

"That is what we are trying to figure out." And with that being said, he turned his attention back to everyone else. "Any ideas?"

After a few moments of complete silence, someone spoke up. "Hanataro, don't forth divisioners have keys to all the prisons?"

"Yeah, but they're all the way back in the district prison." he replied with his head down.

This seemed to give another person an idea. "Doesn't every district have a pair of keys for their prisons? If we just get those keys we should just be able to unlock the doors and set them free." Many people nodded their heads in agreement. Every district jail had a set of keys in the main office of that prison.

"But how do we get the keys without being discovered?" a girl said.

"We hide our reiatsu and set everyone free at the same time."

"Not everyone is talented at hiding their power."

"Suck it in the best you can!"

"Does everyone agree to this idea? We split up, find the keys, and set the captain and lieutenants free." Yamichika questioned. Everybody nodded. "Alright, we'll send up the people who can hide their reiatsu the best. Who here is able to hide their reiatsu?"

Kiyoko raised her hand. She was very talented at hiding hers, but her only problem right now would be the state she is in. Maybe with a little more healing, she would be flawless for this mission.

Seven more people raised their hands as well, and out of them, Kiyoko was in the worst condition.

"Okay." he sounded slightly disappointed, "We will send the ones that can hide their reiatsu to the districts that are farther away, except for you," he pointed at Kiyoko, " Your in no condition to go that far. You'll go to tenth division; it's the closest."

"WHAT," the guy next to her said. He hadn't even raised his hand for the count. "She's still wounded, she'll get caught."

"She can walk and hide her reiatsu better than you, Chikafusa!" Yamichika snapped.

Now that Kiyoko was awake and moving, she felt better. Her body was less stiff and her muscles didn't ache as much.

"Now, who here can kind of hide their spiritual power?" He continued. Eleven hands rose into the air. Yamichika picked only the five that were needed and assigned everyone a district to go to. "Make this quick everyone. We meet back down here at dawn."

Kiyoko stood up; her body really didn't ache as much. She quickly went back to the place she woke up, grabbed her zanpaku-to and followed the others out of the sewer. She briefly noted where the entrance back was, and headed off to tenth district.

It was dark and very quiet; even the moon and stars weren't shining. The gripping, cold air of night stung like poison as it filled her lungs. The buildings that once seemed harmless now appeared forbidding as they peered down at her with their long, sinister faces. The extensive shadows looked like fiends that would attack unexpectedly and without mercy, to any one that crossed their paths.

Kiyoko swallowed her fear and continued towards the tenth division jail. The corridors seemed like they were miles long and filled with every unknown danger. She headed down her first, peaked around the corner, and headed down her second.

_Snap_

She stopped and swiftly drew her sword causing pain to shoot up her arm, but she ignored it. Eyes wide, she searched for the cause of the sound. It was too dark to see inside the shadows. If something was hiding in them, they currently had the upper hand, for she couldn't see them. Seconds passed, but nothing happened. Hesitantly, Kiyoko began walking down the hall, constantly looking back at the place she heard the sound. Deeming the sound to be harmless, she put her sword away and continued running.

After running down four more halls, she was close to the jail. She was running along the side of a building, passing window after window, when...

"WHAT WAS THAT?" a light from one of the windows she passed flicked on. Kiyoko stopped and stared blankly at the light. Had she been careless just now?

"What was what?"

"I saw something, there's something outside. I'm going to check it out."

Her heart pounded as she tore away from the light. She needed to get away before she blew everybody's cover. Franticly, she used shun-po to get as far away as she could, she no longer cared if someone was around the corner, if she didn't run, she would be caught.

As she ran she looked over her shoulder, no one was there. Had they given up and decided that it was their imagination?

She stopped running and looked at where she had gotten to. She was one hall away from the prison and standing next to the tenth division dorms. Kiyoko sucked in all her reiatsu, she didn't know for sure if arrancar where using the building, but she knew she couldn't take the chance.Cautiously, she moved forward.

"Why do we have to feed the prisoners?" someone yelled in from inside.

Kiyoko instinctually ducked to the ground. Her intuition was right, they were using the building. Slowly, she crept along the side until she came to the corner. She peered around it and saw two arrancar coming out.

"Well, dumbass, we need to feed them so they stay alive."

"That's what I'm asking; why do we need them alive?"

"I don't know! Just follow orders!" the other yelled.

The two arrancar strode up to the prison building and disappeared within it. If the arrancar are giving food to the people inside, then they must have a key. Kiyoko emerged from her hiding place and followed. Once she was in the building she quickly hid in the first door she came by. She closed her eyes to calm down; now that she was calmer she was able to concentrate on the arrancars reiatsu levels. They weren't very strong; if she sneaked up to one, she knew she could win, but if she took on both, it would be tougher.

She looked around the corner to see where the arrancar were. One was only three doors away from her, while the other one was on the other end of the hall. The one closest to her, pulled out a ring of keys and separated the one he needed to use. He put it into the lock and waited for the light to come on. Without hesitation, Kiyoko drew her sword and charged at her victim. She kept her reiatsu in and used shun-po to get behind him. With one swift movement, he was sliced in half.

The locks light shone, meaning she could take the key out and enter. She sheathed her sword, entered the room, and found herself in the one place she wanted to be- the prisoner chamber. The room was split in half by a wall of metal bars that locked in the prisoner and in the corner nearest to her, sat a zanpaku-to. Caught on the other side of the bars was the young, white haired, Captain Hitsugaya.

"Fawa, what are you doing here?" he got up and crossed over to the other side of his cell.

"Freeing you, of course." she answered while she put the key in the lock.

The light changed and the door swung opened. Toshiro rushed through the arch and gathered his sword from the corner. Without anything being said, Kiyoko unlocked the other door that lead back to the hall. They both ran towards the far end of the corridor where the other arrancar had been moments before. Kiyoko didn't know what key to use next so she quickly handed the keys to Toshiro and pointed out the door they needed to open. After he took the keys, and chose the one that would open the door, Kiyoko unsheathed her sword because once the door opened, she would need to quick and kill the other arrancar.

Toshiro looked over his shoulder at her; he clearly understood the plan and was waiting for her to be ready. She nodded an okay, and he put the key in the lock. Blue light shone through the crack, he pushed the door open and dodged out of Kiyoko's way. Immediately once the door was open, she flash stepped into the room. The arrancar was on his knees in front of Rangiku's cell, pushing a tray of food through; he didn't have time to react before Kiyoko's sword decapitated him.

Rangiku, who had her back on them, promptly turned around, and hurried to the front of her cell, "What's going on?"

Toshiro entered the room, and put the key in, "We're getting out of here."

"Thank you!"

Kiyoko went to the corner and picked Rangiku's sword up, just as the cell door opened, "Now, let's go!" She hastily gave the zanpaku-to over to its rightful owner, and headed back out to the hall. The other two shinigami followed close behind.

"Where are we going?" Rangiku asked.

"I can't tell you, you'll have to wait till we get there."

The run back to the rendezvous point didn't seem to take as long. Kiyoko was in the lead since she knew where they needed to go, after her was Toshiro, and Rangiku brought up the rear. The corridors and shadows were less forbidding now that she had company. They turned down hall after hall, and finally came to their destination. The three began running down their last corridor, the space between them and the entrance was decreasing.

Thirty feet..

Twenty feet..

Ten feet…

"AAAAAHHHH!" Rangiku screamed causing the other two to turn around. A tall figure stood behind her with its sword at her throat. Toshiro and Kiyoko both reached for their zanpak-to's, but they too had swords at their own necks.

"An escape, how exciting," Kiyoko's captor hissed, "but apparently, your plan wasn't well thought out. We caught your friends." He whispered in her ear.

Kiyoko's heart stopped, everyone was caught. They truly have lost this war.

* * *

There it was, my mean Cliffhanger! I know my writing isn't the best, but maybe with some more practice, I'll get better. I'm still a beginner (I've only written one short story…ever.) 

I would like to send out a special thanks to **Misue** for reviewing! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! You have no idea how much better I feel about my story. For those who don't know, **Misue** is writing a story about Hisagi, it's brilliant, I recommend it to everyone. And she was the first to review my story (as a beginning writer, one gets very anxious about their story, until someone reviews, then you feel much better). So thank you again **Misue!**


	5. Breathe Today

Hello everybody!

Breathe Today by Flyleaf 

PS for those of who follow the songs, I suggest you look up the lyrics of this one; the spoken words sound different then what they are, unless your listening to the EP version.

* * *

"An escape, how exciting," Kiyoko's captor hissed, "but apparently, your plan wasn't well thought out. We caught your friends." He whispered in her ear. 

Kiyoko's heart stopped, everyone was caught. They truly have lost this war.

The arrancar reached across her waist and struggled to untie her sword from her belt. Defenseless, she watched as the other two had their swords taken away as well. Rangiku glared as her zanpaku-to was confiscated, but Hitsugaya had a composed, almost relaxed expression. Kiyoko watched him slightly confused.

Why was he so calm?

"Now, how about we go back to where you guys belong?" the arrancar leaned in close to her ear, "Is that alright with you?" The arrancar was toying with her; he knew that she wasn't in any position to argue, and he liked having that power. He pulled his sword tighter, she felt the sharp blade edge into her skin. "I asked you a question: is that alright with you?"

"Perfectly," she breathed.

"Good, let's go." he replied, not releasing the tension on his blade and slowly the captured trio headed back to the prison.

No matter how many times Kiyoko reminded herself it wasn't her fault they were found, she couldn't help feeling like she was responsible. They were so close, but if they were caught even seconds later, the entire rebellion would have been discovered. But, she was part of the rebellion, so why were the arrancar taking her back too? She didn't have the reiatsu of a captain or lieutenant, so why were they bothering to keep her alive? If they caught everybody, than she couldn't be of any help. It was only a small group of survivors, who would be easily defeated by the Espada; none of them were of any threat.

Wait, that's it!

They needed her to tell them where the hideout was, because some of the captains escaped. But, why did they need the captains and lieutenants? What use are they to Aizen?

They arrived at the prison before she could figure out her questions. She now knew why they needed her, but how long would that last? How long before they didn't need her anymore? She didn't know what kind of questioning to expect, but she couldn't tell them any information, no matter what.

They reached Hitsugaya's cell first, he and his arrancar disappeared into the room while the other two continued down the hall.

Next to be dropped off was Rangiku; she put up a bit of a fight before the arrancar could get the key and open the door.

Kiyoko kept going down the hall. Where exactly was she going?

At the last door of the hall the arrancar forced her to stop. They stood in front of a regular prison door with a lock next to it. He reached into his pocket, pulled out the ring of keys, and put one into the lock. The door opened and she was forced to move forward and then stop again in front of the cell door. The arrancar put the same key into the lock, opened the door, and pushed her into the cell. She stumbled. Foolishly, reached her arms out to try and catch onto something, but there was nothing to grab. She collapsed on the frozen ground.

She got to her knees and looked over her shoulder, for the first time she saw her captor. He had short, black hair and his face was long, his mask remnant made it even longer as it jetted down from his jaw. The spikes that penetrated from it gathered at the end, making his mask almost look like a stoned beard. He locked the cell, threw her sword in the corner, and left the room, not once looking back.

Kiyoko turned back to examine her cell. It was completely empty, and the walls were bare except for a small window about ten feet above her. Bars obscured the view, but she could clearly see smoke from a fire rising into the night's sky. A putrid smell blew through; she guessed that the stench was from whatever was being burned.

What now?

The building was quiet; she could hear every breath she took. The piercing silence seemed to be taunting and caused her heart to pound anxiously. Soul Society was never this quiet, even at night.

Something secret was happening.

Kiyoko closed her eyes trying to concentrate on whatever sound she could, but she couldn't find any. Suddenly, a curdling scream shattered the silence. It was faint; the victim was a couple divisions away. The scream stopped and the still night continued.

Her heart pounded even harder now. Was the same torture the scream came from going to be used on her?

The scream sounded again; ringing even more painfully. Two more screams filled the air; both from different people and directions. The cries of pain echoed for hours and soon the sun entered the sky making them cease.

Kiyoko heard someone enter the room. She quickly turned around to see another arrancar walk up to her cell and slide a tray of food in. Without saying anything, he left.

Cautiously she approached the food. Was it poisoned? There were two slices of bread and a glass of water. The water was crystal clear, and the bread looked harmless.

Her stomach growled; she had been completely oblivious to how hungry she was until now. She knelt down by the tray and slowly ate the bread. It was stale and hard, but if she sipped some water with it, it was easier to swallow.

When she was done, she pushed the tray out of the cell and sat by the far wall with the window only feet above her. She thought about the screams, did anyone talk? The cries stopped and she hadn't been questioned yet, is that because someone let information slip? Or was it just a calm period before they resumed their questionings?

An hour passed; the sun was now high in the sky giving off an motley glow. Though the sun was out, the cell remained cold and dark. Her door clicked open, and two arrancar entered the room. The arrancar who had captured Rangiku was there holding a bag, but the other one was new. He was bald and his mask covered his right eye.

"Well, let's get on with it," the bald one said, "give me the stuff." The other one reached into the bag and pulled out two bottles with brown liquid in them. "WHAT! Why did you give me this shit?"

"The other stuff kills the shinigami too quick; we need to be delicate with this one, she's the last one we have left."

Kiyoko's eyes widened; the other conspirators were all tortured to death! What did these two men do to others that made them die? And what were they planning to do to her? He said that they needed to be delicate; did that mean that they weren't going to be as extreme?

The bald arrancar unlocked the cell and walked towards her. She couldn't look scared; she glared at him as he approached. He now stood in front of her, without flinching, he grabbed her face and forced her mouth open by pinching her cheeks in (so that if she tried to close her jaw she could bite her cheeks instead). He flicked one of the bottles open and dumped the vile tasting liquid into her mouth and let go.

The liquid stung as it flooded down her throat, and into her stomach. For a few seconds she felt no pain, but that was short lived. Her veins soon felt like they were on fire and every muscle tensed involuntary in her body. She screamed out from the pain, but soon regretted it. Her lungs began to burn and tighten. She felt like she would pass out, but once it reached its peak, it vanished. Her body fell limp; still recovering from the sudden trauma it went through.

"Where are the rest of your friends hiding?" he inquired. Kiyoko pressed her lips; she wasn't going to say anything to these monsters. With a sigh he opened the last bottle, knelt down, forced her mouth open again, but only held the bottle within her sight, "Where are they?" Once again she didn't speak and he dumped the liquid down her throat. The pain was worse; her body burned and violently shook. She screamed out, but only heightened the pain. Unlike before, it peaked and remained. After a few moments on intense hurt and a few screams, it stopped. "Well?" She didn't speak. "Naganori, give me another."

"I can't,"

"WHY NOT?!"

"Because if we give any more we'll kill her! In five hours the effects will wear off, we can come back then."

Kiyoko's torturer left the cell, grumbling. They locked the cell and went out into the hall, leaving Kiyoko to suffer alone. Her heart was racing in her chest, making it harder to breathe. Her body remained limp while she lay on the cold floor. What the hell was that? Where they going to use the same stuff in five hours? She closed her eyes; she didn't want to go through that again. There must be a way to get them to stop; a lie, maybe? But what would she say; the rest were dead? No, they wouldn't believe her. Could she say the rest of them are hiding in Rukongai. Would they believe that? Possibly, but where in Rukongai? It would need to be a place that isn't too close to the seireitei, but it couldn't be too far away, either. But maybe they searched the Rukongai districts.

Kiyoko tried to get up, but her body wouldn't move. She tried to flex her fingers, but they didn't respond. She was paralyzed; this must have been one of the effects the arrancar was talking about. What was she to do now? She couldn't move and she was locked in. All she could do was wait, wait for five hours to be tortured again.

The hours flew by as she was trapped in her mind. She thought about everything that happened in the past two days and what she was going to do now. She thought about death and how it may soon be coming for her. Then she questioned where shinigami go after they die. Did they vanish, or did they go back to the Real World as humans?

She began to feel the tips of her fingers tingle, she tried to move them, and they responded. The paralysis was wearing off, meaning her five hours of rest were coming to a close. The door opened, and the two arrancar came in.

The bald one walked up to the cell, "Have you thought about my question?"

"I have," she answered.

He cocked his head a little, "Well?" Kiyoko breathed, would they really believe her? "Do I need to remind you of your answer?" he said as he pulled out a bottle of the foul liquid.

Now was the moment of truth, "Third district, Rukongai."

He looked unconvinced; did he catch her lie? Was that too far, or was it too near? Should she really have said Rukongai, or should she have chosen a district in the seireitei? No, they were residing in the seireitei, they would have known that was a lie.

"Really. Cleaver place to hide," he unlocked the cell, "Third district, if I'm not mistaken, that's one of the districts we destroyed. All that's left there are ruins of the town." He walked up to Kiyoko and looked down, "Are you telling me the truth?" She didn't answer; if she said yes, he might think she is trying to trick him, but she couldn't say no, either. She remained silent, allowing him to be skeptical of her information. "Well, just to be sure you're not lying…" he opened the bottle and forced her to drink the liquid. "ARE YOU LYING?"

"NO" she shouted. The familiar pain consumed her once again.

"REALLY, BECAUSE YOU SEEM UNCERTAIN OF YOUR ANSWER!"

"I'M TELLING YOU THE TRUTH!" she lied. Her body began to seize and her veins were burning. The pain increased, and finally when she thought it reached its peak, it continued to increase. She writhed as if could be shaken off, a scream escaped her lips and then, it stopped.

"Toru, she's not going anywhere. We might as well check into her information." Naganori suggested from the other side of the room.

Toru grinned, "Your right, she isn't going anywhere." He turned and the two left, locking both doors behind them.

Kiyoko suddenly realized her mistake. When the arrancar checked the area and figured out she was lying, they would come back and she would still be here. DAMN! Not only that, but when they returned, she probably would still be paralyzed and they'd find a way to punish her for lying.

The sun was sinking into the horizon, and night soon followed. Kiyoko grew tired; her body had gone through a lot, it hadn't fully healed from the battle, and now it had been tormented. Not to mention, she hadn't slept for twenty-four hours, if not more. She was worn out and exhausted. She closed her eyes and drifted into a shallow slumber. Only slightly conscious of her surroundings, she heard the door clicked and someone came in. She didn't open her eyes, but she heard someone rushing towards her.

'_Shit, they're back already.'_ She thought, but the voice that she heard was not one that belonged to her torturers.

"Is she alright?" Rangiku's voice sounded worried, but how could she have gotten in? Wasn't she locked up too?

Kiyoko felt someone grab her wrist.

"I feel a pulse."

Toshiro? How the heck were they free?

"Do you need me to carry her?" Rangiku was close now.

"No, I can do it." She felt Toshiro pull her arm around his neck, and wrap his arm around her waist. She was hoisted to her feet, but she couldn't stand, she was completely dependent on him to hold her up. She opened her eyes and immediately saw Rangiku's nervous face.

"Kiyoko, you're awake! Are you okay, we heard you screaming. What did they do?" Rangiku was full of questions.

Kiyoko struggled to speak, "How…"

"How did we get out?" Rangiku finished her question, "Captain put the keys from earlier into his pocket before we started out, and the arrancar never searched him." She quickly explained. Kiyoko remembered his calm expression when they were found. _He hid the key; that explains why he was so composed._

Toshiro turned to Kiyoko, "Can you walk?"

"No," she was ashamed to admit it, but she was still paralyzed. When she was at her full height she was only a few inches taller than him, but now that she was hanging onto him, she had to look up. "Okay, Matsumoto, help me put Fawa on my back." Toshiro couldn't run quickly with her in this position, and in no time the three of them were ready to go.

"Where are we headed?" Rangiku asked.

"The sewer system." Kiyoko whispered.

"WHAT!"

"Matsumoto, calm down, it's a fine place to hide; the arrancar can't feel our reiatsu when we're down there." Toshiro groaned.

Using flash step, they got to the entrance faster than before. Rangiku pushed back the tile covering the hole. Toshiro and Kiyoko went through first, and Rangiku followed, closing the entrance.

"Which way?"

"They're a little ways ahead." Kiyoko directed still struggling to stay awake. They walked forward for about five minutes and came to the group.

"Captain Unohana," Toshiro called.

"What," Kiyoko started.

"You need to be healed." He replied.

"But," she began, but before she finished, Captain Unohana came forward.

"Yes," her gaze went from Toshiro, to Kiyoko on his back. "follow me." Unohana lead them back to the sewer room Kiyoko was in earlier. She and Rangiku helped take Kiyoko off of Toshiro, and lay down on the floor. "What happened?"

"We don't know." Rangiku answered.

"Kiyoko, what happened? Kiyoko?"

Her exhaustion finally got to her and she fell asleep in the middle of the conversation. She was safe now, so she had nothing to fear. The effects of the strange potion would wear off soon; she wouldn't be any help awake anyway. Thus she slept.

* * *

HERE IT IS! Nice, right? I didn't leave you with a cliffhanger this time, so now you can relax while you wait for the next chapter. Thank you for reading my story thus far. 

Well, school is going to be taking up most of my upcoming time (for some reason they decided to have semester finals after Christmas vacation), so I probably won't update for about a week.


	6. Pale

Finals are over (hooray)! But I ran out of already written chapters so I had to study for finals while also thinking of what to write. Thankfully I passed all my finals and now I have finished my chapter. Sorry it took so long and I apologize if this seems a little choppy, but I didn't get to sit down for long periods of time to write. I maybe got fifteen minutes to write every day, so yeah. I think (considering how many distractions and other worries I've had) it turned out well.

Hopefully, in this chapter I can answer some of the questions that I have left you guys with and possibly give you more.

Pale by Within Temptation

* * *

_The garden was surrounded by beautiful cherry blossom trees. The soft wind occasionally picking one of the flowers and carry it gently through the air and strategically placing it in the cool water. The stream ran through the garden and today it was clear and calm, allowing any passersby to see the giant koi that inhabited it. The stream was bordered by glittering stones that shone bright in the sun, but were more mystical at night under the stars. _

_She was standing bare foot on the rocks, wearing a brilliant light blue kimono with pictures of birds in flight. Her strait, black hair lay limp by her face and stretched all the way down her back. A man in a deep blue kimono was standing next to her, watching the koi. He had chestnut colored hair that hung to his ears and it danced freely in the wind. Even though she was staring at the water, her mind was on the man. They had just met through an arrangement, but she knew it wasn't so they could become friends. It was for another more permanent reason. _

_The man glanced at her, his crystal green eyes catching the sparkles from the rocks. She returned his gaze and smiled kindly, but considering how awkward she felt, she would have preferred to run away from him and into the safety of the trees. _

_He gracefully retreated from the rocks, and offered his hand to assist her on her way back onto the lawn. She accepted, and climbed down with his aid. The blades of grass tickled the bottom of her feet causing her genuinely smile. The man said something, but she was deaf to what it was, yet, she laughed. Her mute reply made him smile. Maybe this meeting wasn't as awkward as she thought it might be. _

_The two silently chatted as they waked along the cherry blossom trees. The man stopped and pulled a delicately colored blossom from one of the branches. He tucked it into her hair and smiled. _

_His eyes were so gentle and easy to read, yet, they told of a hard life, a life that she too lived. An existence of secrecy and deceit, of not being able to be who you want to be, but who you are supposed to be, and not ever being able to speak your mind. One was never to speak out of turn, or show any sign of disloyalty to their family. These rules were to be followed exactly, especially for her. Everything she did was constantly scrutinized, she was always watched, and any error would disgrace her and her high ranking family. _

_He stepped back to see how she looked. He nodded in approval and the two continued to stroll around the garden. They were talking, but she still couldn't understand what they were saying. The day grew long and soon they were interrupted by a young boy who ran up to her newly acquainted friend, the two boys bowed good-bye and left. _

_She felt alone when she sat down by the stream. Though, she had time to collect her thoughts regarding the man, she was still very confused about him. Why did her family choose him for her? What did his family possibly have to offer? _

_Her thoughts were broken by a woman coming to accompany her. She had the same long, black hair that she did, but she was older and wore a scarlet kimono with gold flowers. She was scowling until she saw the flower in her hair. She lifted her head in a confident way that almost seemed taunting. Whatever happened between the two, the girl in the red kimono obviously was right and wasn't ashamed to say so. The two stared at each other, until she admitted defeat._

"_You were right," Her deafness was wearing and she understood what she said. _

"_I know I'm right. Your father has decided that you two are going to be seeing much more of each other." The strange woman replied. _

_Her answer to the woman was drowned out and the scene began to fade into darkness._

People were yelling in the distance, pulling Kiyoko out of her sleep.

"RENJI, WHERE DID ICHIGO GO?"

"I DON'T KNOW, HE JUST SAID HE WAS GOING TO GET HELP!"

"HELP FROM WHERE?"

"I DON'T KNOW, RUKIA! WHY DON'T YOU follow HIM AND FIND OUT!"

Kiyoko shifted and rolled over onto her side. Why she was having all of these strange dreams where she couldn't hear anybody? For some reason she was able to hear a little from this one, why, what was different?

She was no longer tired, but she still didn't want to wake, because if she woke, she would have to reaccept the happenings of the past forty-eight hours.

"You might as well get up."

Her eyes snapped open. Was the voice talking to her? She sat up and searched for the source. It didn't take her long; the room was empty except for someone who was sleeping in the corner. She shifted her weight to look at the other half of the room, and found Hisagi leaning in the doorway. He had a new cut on his face that ran across the center of the strip tattoo on the left side of his face, but other than that, he was untouched.

"It's nice to see you again, Hisagi." She greeted her superior. His worried expression didn't change. "What's going on?"

Hisagi sighed and sat next to her, the troubled expression remaining on his face. "We just had a meeting," he paused; apparently what he was trying to say wasn't going to be easy, "We, um, were able to piece together some information that a few of us overheard from the arrancar. We discovered why Aizen needs those with high reiatsu." He scratched his head in order to allow himself time to think of the right words to say. "He needs at least fifteen high reiatsu shinigami spirits so that he can raise the ultimate power of the Hogyoku."

"But the Hogyoku isn't supposed to wake for another month. Why would he need you now?"

Hisagi brown eyes pierced into her gray ones, "We greatly overestimated how much time we had, Kiyoko, the Hogyoku wakes in two days."

Kiyoko's thoughts raced; the Hogyoku was going to wake in two days. How could they have possibly overestimated their time, and by this much?

"Also," he continued, "He has the Kings Key."

"He made the Kings Key?" Kiyoko's hope of winning this war began to dwindle as Hisagi continued to speak.

"No, he hasn't made it. Yamamoto told him."

"WHAT?! WHY?" she couldn't help but shout. Yamamoto, the captain of all the captains, the leader of the shinigami; just forced them to surrender. What could she do other than shout?

"Why?" Hisagi repeated, "Because he knows that Aizen will create a new one, killing thousands of innocent people. This way, those people can be saved."

Kiyoko barely calmed down. She barely understood Yamamoto's reasoning; one key was already created, so why did there need to be another. There wasn't a reason. This way the humans' lives were saved, but what about them? What about the surviving shinigami? What were they supposed to do? Sit back and watch the world crumble under Aizens rule.

"We've lost." She declared.

"What?"

"We don't have enough people, nor do we have enough time to fight."

"Kiyoko, no,"

"THINK ABOUT IT!" her voice raised, "WE HAVE LOST. Our army is gone, we're tired and hungry, Aizen has the Key, and the Hogyoku wakes in two days. How could we possibly win? Now that…"

"KIYOKO!" he interrupted, "you cannot think that way! Not now that hope is the only thing we have left." His voice lowered to nearly a whisper, "I know Yurie's death is hard for you to accept, but remember, we all lost someone in this war."

Anger rose within her; how dare he even think her loss of hope had anything to do with Yurie, and even if it did, what could any of them do? Honestly, what hope was there? What could they do? Attack? They couldn't win; Aizen still had a vast army and they only had a small group of survivors. Could they call upon their allies? They didn't have any, they only had more enemies.

She avoided his gaze, "So, what are we going to do?"

"I don't know."

She frowned; had all they done been entirely in vain? They had freed the captains and lieutenants in the hope that they could find a way to fight back. But now, things have changed; now they knew the Hogyoku was almost awake, so they didn't have time to slowly pick away at the army, nor did they have any time to waste.

"Then what do we do?"

"Well, Ichigo Kurosaki went to the Real World to see if he could find help, and Byakuya Kuchiki went to the nobles. So all is not lost, we still have time." He said trying to restore her faith in a victory.

"Time?" she was unconvinced. Two days isn't a lot of time; they would need help by tonight if they were going to plan an attack. If they came in the morning, their opportunity would still be there, but they would have to be swift.

Hours passed by in silence when Kiyoko emerged from the room and joined the others. No one spoke; they were all still trying to completely accept the new information or they were lamenting the loss of loved ones. Either way, Kiyoko didn't spend much time debating what the purpose of the stillness may be. She had thoughts of her own to sort out.

Soon, shouting could be heard in the farther halls. The shouts turned to cheering; help must have come. People began to shuffle down the hall towards the noise, and Kiyoko followed. She wanted to see for herself if aid had really come, and where it was from. It wasn't far before she could see the crowd of gatherers blocking her view of the new heroes, but she didn't need to see them to know who they were. She could hear people talking about how great it was to be in the presence of some of the highest ranking nobles.

The nobles were gracious enough to come to their aid, but even though they've had war training for most of their lives, it just didn't seem to be enough. There were only thirty nobles, plus the number of survivors; that didn't even reached fifty. That wasn't enough, but what else could they do? If they surrendered, would Aizen allow them to live? Even if he did, that was a disgraceful way of life. They really couldn't do anything other than fight back with their tiny army.

She walked away disappointed; they still didn't size up to Aizens army. Victory was so far out of their reach that she couldn't even believe that a miracle was possible; only death loomed nearer.

She went back down the hall to the place she was before the excitement, the white haired, tenth squad captain still sitting in place with his arms across his chest. His face was stolid and his teal eyes followed her as she walked. She returned his gaze and he raised his eyebrow in response.

"The nobles came," she answered and crossed her arms. "Though, I still don't see what the point is."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, honestly, how can we win this? They're just throwing their lives away."

"So are you."

"What?"

"You joined the Gotei knowing that you could die."

"I had no choice!" she snapped defensively.

"Oh, right," he retorted sarcastically as he rolled his eyes.

She pursed her lips and wanted to reply, but no words came.

Toshiro was still looking at her with his half open eyes, "So, are you just going to give up?"

"No," her gaze fell to the floor.

"Are you going to fight?"

She didn't reply; she didn't really want to do anything right now. She spent the last few days running around, and now she was tired; she wanted to be alone and morn Yurie. But she couldn't because she feared that if people saw her cry, they would think she was weak.

She couldn't retreat and live in hiding; she was already living that life style and hated it. If she fought, the worst that could happen is she would die.

"When are we fighting?"

"Tomorrow morning."

* * *

Kiyoko lay for hours on the floor just looking at the ceiling. Everyone was advised to go to sleep so that they were well rested for the ever encroaching battle. She couldn't sleep though; her mind was actively thinking deeper into the questions she had about the past few days. 

How large is Aizen's army, could it be any smaller? If every shinigami who died killed at least one, than, it must be smaller, but how much smaller? But how much larger is it compared to theirs?

Hisagi said that Aizen needed fifteen high reiastu, shinigami souls; did he still have enough after they released some? She closed her eyes to count who she's seen; Hitsugaya, and Matsumoto rescued her, Hisagi talked to her, Kuchiki got help, she heard Renji's name yelled earlier, Unohana and Isane were around healing people, Kenpachi could be heard shouting at Ikkaku, who in turn shouted at Yamichika, and Yachiru was laughing. That was only nine out of the twenty-two current captains and lieutenants.

Kiyoko's eyes snapped open; if her math was right, Aizen only had thirteen left. So, he didn't have enough to raise the power of the Hogyoku, but he did still have the Kings Key.

She closed her eyes and regretted it. Yurie's face floated in her mind. Her wild, black hair shined. Her brilliant brown eyes were happy. Her smile as wide as ever.

Water trickled down Kiyoko's cheek. Her best friend was gone. she hated to admit it, but over the past few days, she came to the realization that Yurie was no longer here. She couldn't ever imagine a world without her, but now that that world existed, she didn't know what to do in it.

Tuning on her side she tried to clear her mind of thoughts, but she couldn't. She began to wonder about her strange muted dreams. She's had two now; in her first one, she was running from something and in the other she was talking to a strange man. Who was the man with the chestnut colored hair, and why did she feel like she knew him from somewhere? She couldn't remember ever meeting him, so how could she know him?

She couldn't… could she?

She shrugged it off and turned on her other side in another attempt to sleep. Why didn't she question any of these things when she was in the cell yesterday when she wasn't trying to sleep? Why did her mind have to wander now that she was trying to rest? None of these things bothered her earlier, then again, she didn't know most of the things she knows now.

Finally Kiyoko realized that she wasn't going to sleep anytime soon. With a sigh she got to her feet and left to find a place were she could be alone. The halls were full of people who were trying to get a few restful hours of sleep and she had trouble getting around them. She nearly stepped on a few people's hands or hair, but she managed to get past. After several minutes she found a secluded place where she could think.

She sat down with her back against the wall and her knees pulled into her chest. The sewage flowed steadily in its stream still releasing an odor, but she had gotten use to the smell. There was barely any light and the only light that was visible, was a small lantern whose old flame was feebly flickering in the distance. The spot where Kiyoko sat was one the skirts of the it's reach.

Her mind was numb; now that she was alone and it was quiet, she couldn't think. She wrapped her arms around her legs and placed her head on her knees. Absentmindedly she watched the edge of the light waver back and forth. Oddly the light began to get rapidly closer as if someone was carrying it.

"Couldn't sleep?"

Kiyoko looked up into the blue eyes of Rangiku. "No,"

"Me neither," she set the lantern down and joined Kiyoko on the floor. "It's funny to… to think that two days have passed." her eyes fell on the lantern.

Kiyoko bit her lip; only two days have passed, it certainly didn't feel like two. Today she was in the sewer, yesterday she was in the cell, and the day before that…

She stopped to prevent the images from flashing across her mind, but they did anyway.

She had been trying not to think about her late friend so that she could avoid the sorrow until after the war. Quickly Kiyoko tried to push Yurie to the back of the mind, but try as she may, she couldn't. The thoughts of Yurie remained and tears began to fill her eyes and spill down her cheeks.

Kiyoko chocked causing Rangiku to look at her, her face softened when she saw the tears.

"What's wrong?"

"It's just…I…," she stuttered.

Rangiku put her hand on Kiyoko's shoulder, "Shh, calm down." she soothed.

"It's…just, it's strange…thinking…that…she's" she tried to say through her gasps while fanning herself with her hand. For some reason she couldn't breathe, she could only take short gasps of air and was beginning to feel lightheaded.

Rangiku began to run her finger over Kiyoko's hair, "Dear, calm down. You'll hyperventilate at this rate." Kiyoko continued to choke on her salty tears, unable to stop their will to persist. "Shh," Rangiku soothed, "Just breathe. Look at me," Kiyoko looked up into the blonds eyes, "In," she inhaled deeply, "and out." Kiyoko copied and found immediate results. She was able to control her breathing and her stubborn tears were beginning to subside.

"Sorry," Kiyoko apologized. She had no intention of crying at all through this, but she broken from the difficulty.

"Don't be, these are hard times." Rangiku replied.

Kiyoko realized how tired she was of hiding her pain. Why did she even try? All her time in the Shinigami academy and in the Seireitei, she held onto Yurie for support, but she was no longer here. Kiyoko knew she wasn't strong enough to sustain herself by herself; she required someone to talk to. She needed to trust someone, and maybe Rangiku was the one she needed.

"Rangiku," she said, still slightly breathless, "After we left the bath house…"

"HEY, EVERYBODY, GET UP!" Kenpachi yelled in the distance.

"We'd better go," Rangiku sighed and got to her feet.

"Yeah," She followed. Her chance to tell someone the truth had passed unsuccessfully and now she was going to have to hold it inside once again.

The two girls headed towards the place where Kenpachi's voice originated, which wasn't far. When they arrived most of the shinigami were awake and surrounding the tall, spiky haired man. He didn't look very pleased, but he usually never does anyway.

Kiyoko wondered how this strange man felt. To her, this hiding was disgraceful, but the eleventh division had beliefs that were close to the samurai. Could they look at the current situation, and think it of it a more disgraceful than she did?

Kenpachi began his announcement, "Alright everybody, you know what today is. Our plan is to…"

Kiyoko stopped paying attention. She knew this was important, but something caught her eye, someone was watching her. A man with chestnut colored hair and stunning green eyes was indeed looking at her. She returned his gaze; he was familiar, but yet, she knew she'd never seen him. His sad expression made her feel awkward, like she should know him and he was expecting a warm greeting. Kenpachi finished and everybody began to shuffle around to collect their things, but Kiyoko and the man stayed, their contact never broke.

The man's eyes sparkled as if a small fire of hope had been reignited. He parted his lips and whispered, "Kuchiki,"

* * *

One of my longest chapters, 3400 words. O.o I wanted to end it about half way through, but decided to continue and make this chapter long. Well I have some unfortunate news, I have a report to write for school, so it may be a while before I can update again. 

I would like to thank **Edge-Keen Blade **for the reviews, I _seriously_ appreciate them.

As for the rest of you, thanks for reading, and if you suddenly feel generous, leave a review. I would really like to know what you think.


	7. What's the Plan

Sorry it took me so long and don't blame my late chapter on my report for that wasn't entirely the only reason this is late. I went back on some of my chapters and did some re-writing. Not much changed, I put in some little tidbits is all, and in **Before the Dawn** I put in a little snippet of Kiyoko hearing someone in the halls, and almost getting caught. Also, my family got a puppy! Well, sorta it adopted us. You see, we think someone dumped it near our town and because it is the coldest part of winter (-10, -20 on average during the day) we took it in. It's been hectic, the puppy isn't house trained and hasn't got house manners.

Thank you **Edge-Keen Blade** for the extra boost to finally motivate me to finish writing this chapter.

**Important!** I just realized that I've only told you once what Kiyoko's zanpaku-to's name is. Well, it's Remitora(thunder tiger…at least, I hope that's what it means. I don't speak Japanese ! ) Also, I figured out how to let every body (not just the people who are logged in) review! YEAH!! Everybody can review!!

Anyway! ON with the chapter!!

PS: My proofreader hasn't been able to read this and tell me the problems (her computers a little…dead), SO once again, brace yourself!!!!! I reread it a few times, but I usually miss things.

(I don't know a song that fits this one)

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The man's eyes sparkled as a small fire of hope was reignited. His lips parted and he whispered, "Kuchiki,"

Kiyoko's eyes widened. Did he just call her Kuchiki?

No, why would he call her that, she wasn't a member of the clan.

"What?" replied a voice from behind her.

A familiar sensation trickled down her spine; she felt reiatsu at her back. Feebly she peered over her shoulder to ensure if anyone else was present. Her gaze fell upon a suave man with smooth black hair that was clipped deliberately so that it fell in front of his inscrutable face. Around his neck was a delicate light azure scarf with newly tattered ends. The noble blue eyes of Byakuya Kuchiki were glaring, silently commanding her to depart and leave the two men alone.

Kiyoko felt her face grow warm and red; if the man wasn't talking to her, why was she still standing there in-between the two males?

"Sorry," she turned back to the man in front of her. "I thought you were…" She tried to finish explaining, but she couldn't think of anything to say.

The man's mouth was agape and his eyes were wide in shock. A confused expression took the place of the hopeful one.

Kiyoko's face grew warmer; did he just notice her? If she hadn't said anything, would he have noticed her? Lowering her head in shame, she scurried away with her head facing to the floor to avoid awkward eye contact.

Keeping her face down, she half walked-half sprinted away from the men. Maybe she could have just sneaked away without being seen, instead of pulling the attention to her. Why did she even think that he was talking to her? Maybe, she supposed, it was because she hoped that he was from her past, but that couldn't be possible.

Kiyoko barely got five feet from the men when…

"AH!"

…her gracefulness failed her. Due to not paying attention to anything, she somehow managed to trip over herself and land face first into the ground. Once she got herself to her knees, someone grabbed her arm to help her up. Startled she faced the helper.

The chestnut haired man.

"Are you alright?" his voice was filled with sheer concern.

She looked into his eyes, "Yeah, I'm fine." She answered climbing fully to an upright position, not leaving his green gaze.

"Good, so why didn't you…"

Byakuya walked up behind him and place a hand on his shoulder. The man stopped mid-sentence and looked at him. Byakuya whispered something too quiet for Kiyoko to hear. When he was done talking, Byakuya walked away.

Blankly, she stared at strangers face. For the first time she took in his appearance. He was looking at his feet with his hands clasped behind his back. Dazzling green eyes could barely be seen though his chestnut bangs. His elegantly angled face was framed brilliantly by lively chestnut hair. He wasn't wearing a shinigami uniform, instead he wore an expensive men's kimono.

Kiyoko's eyes widened. The man that stood before her was a noble.

"So, you're talented in kido." he said confidently looking up.

Kido? What a strange way to start a conversation, let alone say to someone you've never met.

"Well, you're not wearing a sword, so wouldn't that make you talented in kido?" he continued.

What? Not wearing a sword. Kiyoko checked her hip.

No zanpaku-to.

"SHIT! Where did Remitora go?!"

"WHAT!"

Well aware that she just swore in front of a noble and a complete stranger, she franticly glanced up and down the halls. She didn't care what he thought; she'd have to worry about that later. Right now she needed to be fully focused on the current situation-the war. In order to do this, she needed to discard everything that didn't have to do with it. But also, she needed to have her sword which happened to be no where in sight.

"I have to go." She hastily excused herself before running down the hall.

"Wait! I'll help you." He called after her.

"No thanks."

She didn't require his help; she could find Remitora herself. Even though she knew very little about nobles, she knew he probably would tell her to calm down and think. That technique would be quicker than hers (running around until she found what she was looking for), she didn't want to be near him any longer than necessary. She just had the most embarrassing moment of her life, and he witnessed it. Heck, he was the reason for it! If he hadn't been looking over her shoulder, she wouldn't have been confused and this whole ordeal would have been prevented.

Not only all of this embarrassment, but now she didn't know the battle plan. What was she to do? She could just trail everybody else, but if they split in group, where does she go? Would it even matter if there was an extra person in one group and one less in another? It probably wouldn't, but it might perplex a few people.

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!"

"Sorry!"

She finally came to the place where her sword lay. Foolishly she had left Remitora in the middle of the hall where she had been trying to sleep earlier. She lifted the blade from the floor and strapped it to her hip. Now ready for battle, she followed the crowd with her eyes down as if she were headed to her end.

In truth, they all were.

With their small force they really weren't any challenge for the arrancar. That was already established in the first battle that killed so many of the shinigami; Yurie among those numbers. Her voice still rang strong in Kiyoko's mind. The last words Yurie spoke were the only ones she couldn't recall. She didn't believe that the last time they saw each other would truly be their last. Luck, like all the other times, would help them get to the end of whatever lay before them, but luck failed them this time revealing disastrous consequence.

Yurie was destroyed by the phantom arrancar.

Until now he had never crossed Kiyoko's mind, she had only thought of her friend. What would Yurie think of her now? Not morning, even thinking of her, and currently holding her head down in shame? But, shame of what? Not being able to defeat the phantom arrancar when she had the chance, or not being able to save her friend? She couldn't save Yurie anymore, that chance passed, but she was being given another chance to fight and obliterate the arrancar that disrupted Yurie's life.

That chance wasn't ever going to pass again.

She followed the group for what seemed like hours. They had passed almost four exits, and yet kept walking. Fully confused, Kiyoko finally decided to ask someone for the plan. She didn't know anybody who was in front of her, except for the chestnut haired man who was at least thirty feet ahead. She glanced over her shoulder. She was at the tail end of the group, only five other people followed behind her. Among the five there were two that she knew. Captain Hitsugaya and Matsumoto were at the very end of the line, trailing ten feet behind the last person in front of them.

Kiyoko slowed her pace, allowing the other three people to pass her.

"Matsumoto stop it!"

The two were now close enough for her to clearly hear.

"But Captain, you can't fight very well with a crick in your neck." Matsumoto whined.

"Right now I prefer it than you!" he snapped, irritation rising in his voice. "STOP TOUCHING ME!"

"Jeez, you're cranky today." Matsumoto pouted.

"…What are you so happy about?" Hitsugaya changed the subject.

"I don't know," she pondered, "maybe because this war will be over and we can go about our usual routines, and finally sleep in our own beds!"

Rangiku had been acting happy (considering the situation) because of this war plan. Why didn't Kiyoko pay attention?! The strategy must be specifically designed so that the small group could manipulate Aizens larger one. It must be complicated, too complicated for her to cheat her way into it.

"Don't get your hopes too high Matsumoto. I'm personally not confident about this."

"CAPTAIN!"

There was a hard _thud_ and an audible _"OW"._

Startled, Kiyoko looked back at the two. Rangiku towered above the white head of her captain with her fist raised.

"DON'T SAY THINGS LIKE THAT! Let me go into this fight with a happy state mind."

Hitsugaya tenderly rubbed the top of his throbbing head and shot an cold glare at Rangiku. He regained his composition and stood up strait with his arms crossed, "Fine,"

Matsumoto lowered her fist, "Good."

There was a pause between the captain and lieutenant in which they shot death glares at each other. Unsure if she should talk to either, Kiyoko took a few hesitant steps towards them. The sudden movement caught Hitsugaya's attention and his cold eyes moved to her. Rangiku realized something amiss when her Captain and she too looked at the new arrival.

Felling the awkward attention now focused on her, Kiyoko couldn't think of what to say. She had just interrupted their argument and was just stupidly gawking at them, "Um…"

"Kiyoko?" Rangiku uttered, slightly tilting her head to the side.

"Sorry, I did't mean to interrupt," she began to fiddle with her sleeves, "but, um… I was, er…You see, I didn't…um… Earlier I…" the right words escaped her. Once she had an idea of what to say, her thoughts shifted. How hard was it to say _I wasn't paying attention to the battle strategy because I was too busy staring at a man who wasn't looking at me? Could you tell me the plan? _But for some reason that simple explanation was the hardest thing to confess.

Hitsugaya's face showed no sign of comprehension, "I didn't catch that."

"Me neither." Rangiku agreed, thoroughly confused.

Once again Kiyoko tried to explain, "I… there was this…so I didn't…and now…"

Yet again she received bewildered expressions.

"I…" sighing she faced the ground, "Do you know the battle plan?"

"Yes," Hitsugaya replied, lifting an eyebrow, "Why don't you?"

Kiyoko closed her eyes. She was hoping he wouldn't ask that. "Well…"

"She was busy flirting." Rangiku simply blurted.

"Seriously," he groaned through clenched teeth. He unfolded his arms and walked in the direction of the others, "We have to get going, we'll explain on the way." Once he finished, Hitsugaya continued to walk past Kiyoko.

She turned and followed, "Where are we going?"

"First division." Rangiku answered from behind.

Kiyoko faced her, "Why?"

"So," Hitsugaya began, making her turn her head again, "we don't waist our time on pointless battles."

"Yeah," Rangiku continued, "we can't deplete our energy on the unimportant fights. We need it for the fights that might actually end the war."

"...okay,"

"The whole plan is to attack the main building where Aizen resides, in one swift instant." Hitsugaya explained.

Kiyoko frowned, "That's not much of a plan."

"That's why I'm not confident about it."

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! And you guys thought she was a Kuchiki!! (falls over laughing)…who knows, maybe I'm tricking you? It will all be revealed later.

Once again everybody, I'm sorry for the long wait on this chapter. Also, I had a bad case of writer's block, so I hope that it isn't apparent.

Whatever!

Please review!!!!


	8. Trap

**I GOT THREE REVIEWS ON MY LAST CHAPTER!! YEAH!! I know I'm pathetic. **

**Again everybody I'm going to tell you that I'm not giving up. This fanfic **_**will**_** eventually have a complete instead of an in-progress label and I hope that you all are as determined to see that day as much as I am. Also reviewers don't be surprised if I message you asking for some confidence because I really want to finish this, but I am human therefore I have weak moments were I'm down.  
**

**This is a rather dark chapter and a lot of stuff is revealed…about the war, not Kiyoko.**

**Also I have updated a progress report to my profile, see it if you're curious where i am with the next chapter. **

**Prelude 12/21 **by A.F.I

**Disclaimer: Dang, I told you I'd forget to put this on, but you all know I don't own bleach.**

**(not proofreader read)**

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A fresh coat of snow covered the sleeping earth, the soft powder was untouched. The layer of white shone in the pale night light. Petite clumps of colorless snow continued to fall and gather. All the civilians had sought shelter under the snow capped buildings. They were peacefully unaware of the intruders who had migrated underground to regain their freedom.

There was a shuffle and a soft scraping as a tile from the First district courtyard lifted and moved to reveal an abyss into the ground. A tall figure emerged from the hole and slowly took in their surroundings. His eyes slowly moved from left to right, memorizing every detail. Confirming that the area in front of them was safe he turned in place to check the area behind him. After a few seconds of thorough examination, he motioned for someone to come out of the hole he had emerged from.

Cautiously someone climbed out and stood next to the other man.

"Are you sure it's clear Captain? You're not the best at sensing reaitsu." the new comer asked while scratching his cold bald head.

"Shut up." Kenpachi groaned, "I'm sure." His hair chimed has he moved his head.

Ikkaku turned away from his captain and nodded in the direction of the hole. Dozens of dark blurs jumped from its shadows and landed unsystematically around the pit, their palm on the hilts of their weapons.

Kiyoko's grey eyes narrowed as she examined the motionless surroundings. Nothing stirred; even the shinigami were like frozen statues.

Even though her outer appearance gave the impression that she was completely focused on the current situation, her mind swirled with other less important things. It was the final stretch before the war ended, yet she could no longer force herself to concentrate. The events, the questions, everything filled her blocking her ability to focus on the plan that Hitsugaya just finished explaining in full detail.

The snow lay evenly over the courtyard. Despite the occasional missing building, the area looked untouched. There was no debris littering the ground; no fragments of the missing buildings and not a single fallen comrade. If she hadn't known better Kiyoko would have said that there never was a fight here, but the damaged and missing buildings told otherwise.

She scanned the vicinity again as a new thought entered her mind. _Where were the fallen? If they weren't lying where they died, then where was Yurie's body?_

She shut out the painful thought.

Unohana stood beside her, her black hair decorated with glitters of white. Kiyoko thought Unohana was acting vaguely different. Even in a time of war she would be more talkative than this, but when Kiyoko met up with her in the sewer just before leaping into this position, she was different.

What happened in Hueco Mundo?

Kiyoko had two guesses: one was that the captains and others were captured and transported back to the Seireitei, or two, they somehow managed to open a portal and come back.

"Let's move!"

Releasing the grip on Remitora she stood and turned to Unohana. Unohana's eyes sparkled with a foreign emotion that Kiyoko had never seen on her- hopelessness. She didn't believe in the strategy. Honestly Kiyoko couldn't blame her for she too didn't think it could work.

The full plan was to travel during the night through the sewers to first district (**if your confused scroll down and I'll explain**), hide their reaitsu, and attack first district's headquarters in the hope that Aizen was residing there. This strategy had no room for error; if something went wrong the plan would fall apart. It was delicate, but it was all they had. They didn't have time to come up with a foolproof idea and this was better than nothing.

Unohana turned and began towards the headquarters. Kiyoko stole one last look at her surroundings and quickly followed. The line of shinigami streamed up staircase to the main building. She was almost there when she stopped, something didn't feel right.

She turned to face the courtyard. It was quiet and calm, but she could feel a quiver down her spine. It was faint, but existent.

Why didn't the other feel this? There were shinigami who were much more talented at sensing reaitsu, yet they kept running up to building. She could be imagining this, but her instincts screamed something was wrong.

There was a crunch of snow to her right. Her sword flashed as it was drawn from its sheath.

Silence.

There was nothing. She stepped back, away from the courtyard.

Another crunch of snow to her left, she spun showing her sword.

Nothing.

She cautiously stepped into the seemingly deserted area. She could no longer feel the slight leak of reaitsu from the shinigami; in fact she couldn't feel any reaitsu. It was gone. Whatever was there was gone and now she was alone.

Guardedly she tried to go up the stairs backwards, keeping her eye on the courtyard. Deeming it safe she turned.

"Where are you going, shinigami?"

She froze. She wasn't alone.

"Quite talented aren't we…at hiding our spirit energy that is."

It was a male voice that she didn't recognize.

Slowly she looked over her shoulder. A strange dark figure stood in the square. Kiyoko concentrated on trying to find his reaitsu, but he wasn't releasing any.

"I'm a little surprised though," he began to walk forward, "I thought you shinigami would be a bit more…ah what's the word I'm looking for…smart."

Kiyoko moved off of the steps, she knew she would have to fight him in order for the others to have a chance at defeating Aizen.

"I mean, hiding in the sewers…How shameful."

"What,"

_Hiding in the sewers…_ how did he know? He must have been watching; it's impossible to sense reaitsu from the sewers.

"You seem surprised. Yes, we knew where you shinigami were hiding."

_We knew…_they knew…

He continued to move forward, "So, why didn't we come and get you?" he shrugged, "We didn't want to waist energy needlessly. You shinigami would surface before we desperately needed to find you." He stopped walking and crossed his arms, "You shinigami are so predictable."

Terror filled her eyes as she realized what he was talking about.

This is a trap!

The shinigami, the nobles, everybody had been playing into this. The arrancar knew they would try to attack and were prepared to recapture them. They hid their reaitsu to lure the shinigami into a false sense of security and then the arrancar would attack.

She needed to warn the others!

Determined Kiyoko kept her eyes on the arrancar. He was the only threat to her getting back to the group and once he was eliminated…

A dark blur crossed her vision and her sword was flying away from her. Strong hands pinned her wrists behind her, leaving her defenseless. The arrancar that had been talking to her still stood feet away.

"I thought I killed you." A second voice said.

The voice was familiar…too familiar for her liking.

Phantom arrancar.

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**Okay, for those of you who don't understand the battle plan, here is my explanation. Earlier I said that they would attack in the morning…I lied. Well not really it is morning for them because they slept and their sense of time is all messed up from being in the sewer. Anyway, The Captains figured because of Aizens ego he probably would stay in the most extravagant place in the seireitei which is First district headquarter (the place where the captains have meetings). So, what they want to do is hide their reaitsu and attack Aizen! If you still don't understand message me or say so in a review and I'll try to explain it better. Actually the plan isn't a big part in my story, all you need to know is that the shinigami came up with a plan and are putting it into action. **

**I want to thank my reviewers: **_**Zz-Edge-X-Meirouki-zZ**__**, Bloody-Ribbon**_**, and **_**Shadow Wolf Princess24**_

**You made me happy! **

**If you don't mind, could you tell me if I should keep putting songs to my chapters or if it makes a difference? Please and thank you!!! **


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